Graeme McDowell will open the defence of his Volvo World Match Play Championship title with a match against in-form Frenchman Alexander Levy, the winner of last week’s weather-affected Portugal Masters.
Ryder Cup star McDowell, who beat Thongchai Jaidee in last year’s final, has been drawn against Levy, Dutchman Joost Luiten and Finn Mikko Ilonen in the group stages of the 50th anniversary edition of the tournament, which gets underway at European Tour Destination London Golf Club, in Kent, on Wednesday.
McDowell, who won three points out of three in The Ryder Cup, is the top seed in the Gustaf Larson Group, whilst the leading lights in the Arnold Palmer, Mark McCormack and Assar Gabrielsson groups are his Ryder Cup team-mates Henrik Stenson, Jamie Donaldson and Victor Dubuisson respectively.
World Number Five Stenson, who won the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in 2007, will get his challenge underway at 12.09pm against South African George Coetzee, a late replacement for the injured Thomas Bjørn.
Donaldson, the man who clinched the winning point for Europe, starts with an intriguing match-up at 12.33pm against the 2006 champion Paul Casey, who recently returned to the winners’ enclosure in the KLM Open.
Dubuisson, who dovetailed with McDowell in such spectacular fashion at Gleneagles, came mightily close to winning the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February, and the Frenchman will be hoping to go one better this week, when his first opponent is the equally enigmatic Pablo Larrazábal.
Another noteworthy match features two stars from the US PGA Tour, Swede Jonas Blixt and American Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed, who will take to the International Course at 12.45pm.
The last match out on Wednesday is at 1.09pm, when Stephen Gallacher will go head to head with his fellow European Tour champion Shane Lowry.
The group stages are spread across the first three days, with the quarter finals – featuring the top two players from each of the four groups – taking place on Saturday.
The semi-finals and final will both take place on Sunday, with the eventual champion walking away with a winner’s cheque for €650,000.
The field boasts nine of the world’s top 50, with all 16 players ranked within the top 90 of the Official World Golf Ranking. There are 14 nationalities represented, boasting a combined total of 115 victories worldwide.
Tickets for the Volvo World Match Play Championship are available to buyhere
